Zucchini Kootu Recipe – Zucchini Dal

Zucchini kootu recipe. This simple and fulfilling Zucchini Kootu or Dal is made using Moong dal and cooked in a creamy coconut sauce. Its mildly spicy and makes a great side dish when served with rice or any flat bread.

Until recently I never used to get Zucchinis in nearby markets, so I have neither tasted them nor cooked them.

For the first time when I did saw one, I thought it was a fancier kind of “Ooty cucumber” and when enquired the sales person in the shop said it is “Sukni” in the local slang and me being the brightest person around, simply failed to make the connection.

It was my friend who enlightened me on “Sukni” being the very same “Zucchini”.

Despite coming across so many recipes on the internet using zucchini, I had no clue on what to make when I actually got hold of one.

I simply cut a slice and ate it and really loved eating it raw. It tasted more like “Paal Peerkangai”, it’s a variety of “Ridge Gourd” and Yes!! before you begin to wonder, I love eating ridge gourd raw.

The first dish that I wanted to try with Zucchini is this Zucchini Kootu. You can serve this zucchini kootu as a side dish with any spicy kulambu along with rice or with any Indian flat breads like phulkas, chappathis or rotis.

If you wondered like me, whether to remove the skin of the zucchini or not, I would say there is no need. You can wash the zucchini and use it as such.

As zucchini is tender, it may get easily mashed along with dal while pressure cooking. If this is not okay with you cook it separately.